 |
Part 1 |
Road Films Part 1 | Examples
Males dominate as the heroic (or anti-heroic) protagonists, with some exceptions (i.e., The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1976) with Claudia Jennings and Jocelyn Jones as sexy bankrobbers, Herbert Ross' feminist 'road movie' Boys on the Side (1995), Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise (1991), and Joseph Sargent's Coast to Coast (1980) with Dyan Cannon), although female characters often accompany the male during his trip. Road pictures had their heyday in the 1970s, when the traditional western declined in popularity. Many sub-categories of road films have existed: racing or chase films, biker flicks, trucker films, buddy films, road warrior films, and lovers/outlaws on the run films. Lovers-On-The Run Road Films: Fugitive couples (often lovers and/or killers) fleeing from the law have been found in numerous road films, including:
Earlier Classic Road Films: Frank Capra's romantic comedy It Happened One Night (1934) was an archetypal 'road film', about a fleeing heiress (Claudette Colbert) accompanied by an unemployed newspaper reporter (Clark Gable) on the road - traveling by bus and by hitch-hiking. Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz (1939) was a quintessential 'road' film as Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) took an odyssey from her drab, black and white Kansas 'home' to the wonderful land of Oz to learn more about herself, while pursued by the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton). Two John Ford films were classic road films: Stagecoach (1939), an exciting western tale of the perilous adventures of a group aboard a stagecoach across Indian country between two frontier settlements (between Tonto, Arizona toward the Dry Fork and Apache Wells way stations, and finally to their destination - Lordsburg, New Mexico) during a sudden Apache uprising. And Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940), an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, chronicled a journey of destitute Dust Bowl Okies, the Joad family, from their dispossessed Midwest farmlands to the promised land of California via Rte. 66.
Other Varieties of Road Movies:
In the landmark road epic Easy Rider (1969), Dennis Hopper (as Billy) and Peter Fonda (as Wyatt/Captain America) rode their bikes from Mexico to Los Angeles (for a drug deal) and then onto New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Symbolizing generational unrest along the way in their search for America (moving eastward), they encountered Establishment prejudice and jailed, drunken lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson). Disaffected classical pianist and oil-rigger Bobby Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson) made an ill-fated attempt to find himself on a journey to see his ailing father in Puget Sound, where along the way he picked up two unusual female hitchhikers on their way to Alaska (in Five Easy Pieces (1970). The X-rated Best Picture winner Midnight Cowboy (1969) ended essentially as a road trip when male stud Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and sickly companion 'Ratso' Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) boarded a bus from NYC to their fantasy land of Florida.
Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991) told of the relationship between two other hustlers: River Phoenix's narcoleptic Mike Waters and Keanu Reeves' Scott Favor, as they traveled through Seattle, Portland, Idaho and Rome on a quest for River's missing mother. Auteur writer/director Greg Araki's arthouse film The Living End (1992), known as the "gay Thelma & Louise," told about HIV-positive film critic Jon (Craig Gilmore) and his on-the-lam flight with violent nihilist Luke (Mike Dytri). George Sluizer's The Vanishing (1993), an English-language remake of his own superior 1988 Dutch film, starred Keifer Sutherland on an obsessive search for his missing girlfriend Diane (Sandra Bullock) after a gas station stop, and Jeff Bridges as the creepy psychotic kidnapper. Kevin Reynolds' coming-of-age road film Fandango (1985) involved five recent University of Texas graduates (including unknown Kevin Costner and Judd Nelson) known as "the Groovers" in 1971 who took one last road odyssey across West Texas while on the verge of uncertain futures (including conscription in the Vietnam War). Walter Hill's Crossroads (1986) was a Faustian-related road movie fantasy-drama (based on the story of real life blues legend Robert Johnson), with an exceptional Ry Cooder blues soundtrack, about a pair of searchers (Ralph Macchio as Julliard School guitarist Eugene Martone - aka Lightning Boy, and Joe Seneca as legendary blues musician and harmonica player Willie Brown - aka Blind Dog) who traveled across the Mississippi Delta, with runaway Frances (Jami Gertz). Robert Rodriguez' From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) paired Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney as bad-boy brothers Richard and Seth Gecko, who were assailed by vampires at a trucker roadhouse stopoff called The Titty Twister. David Cronenberg's erotic and disturbing Crash (1996) examined the lives of a subculture of individuals who had fetishes about car crashes, including their staged recreations of celebrity automobile accidents. In Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), based upon Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 book, stoned, slightly-insane sports-journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his sidekick attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) took a drug-crazed ride in a red convertible across the Mohave Desert from LA to Las Vegas, experiencing surreal surroundings and many crazy characters. Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals (1998), the first major release written, directed, co-produced, and acted by Native Americans, included an emotionally-difficult road trip from an Idaho reservation to Phoenix. David Lynch's simple and sentimental The Straight Story (1999) told of aging widower Alvin Straight's (Richard Farnsworth) determined attempt to travel (on a riding lawnmower) to a neighboring state to reconcile with his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton).
Bruno Dumont's unrated Twentynine Palms (2003, Fr.) had only two principal cast members -- cross-cultural lovers including American photographer David (David Wissak) and French-speaking Russian girlfriend Katia (Katia Golubeva), who scouted locations in the barren desert of Joshua Tree National Park in a Hummer and repeatedly made love. The rites of passage road movie The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), an adaptation of Che Guevara's journals written while traveling in South America in 1952, told of a bike trip by asthma-stricken 23-year-old medical student Ernesto Guevara De La Serna (Gael García Bernal) and 29-year-old Argentinian biochemist Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De La Serna). And Alexander Payne's lauded Sideways (2004) told of the week-long exploits of failed, wannabe writer and wine expert Miles (Paul Giamatti) and his best friend - middle-aged, engaged-to-be-married acting-buddy Jack (Thomas Haden Church), during a trip in California's wine country. Comedy Road Films: The early 40s "Road To" movies pairing Bob Hope and Bing Crosby with Dorothy Lamour found the comedy team in far-away places, illustrated in the titles:
The other films in the series in later years were:
Although the road trip in George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973) wasn't very extensive, the entire film was about hot-rod drag-stripping down the main street of a small California town during one summer's night. Young Tatum O'Neal won a Best Supporting Actress for her performance as 9 year-old orphaned Addie Loggins, who with Bible-selling con man Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) swindled Depression-Era customers in the Midwest in Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon (1973) as they toured the dusty rural roads of Middle America.
The ultimate 'travelers' nightmare' road-trip during the holidays was portrayed in John Hughes' hilarious Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), with mismatched companions Steve Martin as aggravated businessman Neal Page, and John Candy as obnoxious shower-ring salesman Del Griffith. Martin Brest's Midnight Run (1988) also featured two bickering leads: Robert De Niro as bounty-hunter Jack Walsh escorting (by handcuffs) whiny accountant-embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin) for extradition from New York to Los Angeles, during which Mardukas comments: "Under other circumstances, you and I...probably would still have hated each other". Peter Farrelly's Dumb and Dumber (1994) coupled imbecilic Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) together during their idiotic escapades from the East Coast to Aspen, Colorado. In a shorter 'road' trip, of sorts, Walter Hill's 48 Hours (1982) (aka 48 Hrs.) paired Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy as bickering, 'odd-couple' buddy-cops: temperamental detective Jack Cates and smooth-talking Reggie Hammond - two who disliked each other immensely ("We ain't partners, we ain't brothers, and we ain't friends"). The ribald Australian comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) included an unlikely trio of characters (two drag queens and a transsexual, portrayed by cinematic heavies Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving, and Terence Stamp) as they traveled in a lavender-colored bus named Priscilla to Alice Springs - a remote outback location - to play a lip-synching drag stage show. In To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo traveled across the country disguised in drag. The full-length animated feature Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), starring the dim-witted MTV teens, found them traveling cross-country to recover a stolen TV and find sex, while being chased by both sides of the law. Todd Phillips' teen sex-comedy Road Trip (2000) with gratuitous nudity told of a frenzied 1,800 mile journey set in motion by a videotaped illicit sexual encounter (between Amy Smart and Breckin Meyer) in upstate NY that was accidentally mailed to the guy's girlfriend in Austin, TX. |
Road Films: Road films have been a staple of American films from the very
start, and have ranged in genres from 
Most
road pictures feature movement from East to West -- rather than the reverse,
and often cross or mention the famed highway Route 66 (made popular by the
early 60s TV series of the same name starring Martin Milner and George Maharis).
See also this site's description of 
writer/director
Nicholas Ray's first feature film, the poignant noir They Live by Night
(1949), based on the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson,
with Farley Granger as fugitive Bowie and Cathy O'Donnell as his wife Keechie
- both doomed and pursued lovers
Robert
Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974) - a remake of Ray's 1949 film
and an update of Edward Anderson's novel, with Keith Carradine (as Bowie)
and Shelley Duvall (as Keechie) as an outlaw couple brought together during
a series of bank robberies
Raoul
Walsh's They Drive By Night (1940), told about a freelance truck-driving
business by wildcat drivers, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan. Preston
Sturges' screwball comedy 
Laslo
Benedek's classic biker film 
Steven
Spielberg's early student film Duel (1971) took place on California's
desert roads where a harried businessman (Dennis Weaver) was relentlessly
pursued by an unseen driver of a diesel truck. In Monte Hellman's road classic
about drag-racing drifters Two Lane Blacktop (1971), the route for
a race to Washington DC between a '55 Chevy and a '70 Pontiac GTO began in
Los Angeles and traveled eastward through the Southwest -- through Needles
(CA), Flagstaff (AZ), Santa Fe (NM), Little Rock (AK), Memphis (TN), and Marysville
(NC). And in another action/chase film, Richard Sarafian's The Vanishing
Point (1971), Barry Newman (as a desperate ex-marine, ex-race car driver
and cop named Kowalski) was propelled from Denver to San Francisco by drugs
and police giving chase to his white Dodge Challenger - ending in a climactic
car crash at a road block created from bulldozers. In George Miller's The
Road Warrior (1982), Mel Gibson starred as a post-apocalyptic wanderer
in Australia who helped to fight off a marauding group of bikers. 
Wim
Wenders' Paris, Texas (1983) featured Harry Dean Stanton as an amnesiac
named Travis who slowly pieced together his life after traveling from Texas
to California and reconciling with his wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski) in the
sex industry. Jim Jarmusch's minimalist independent film Stranger Than
Paradise (1984) followed the aimless and boring lifestyle of small-time
gambler Willie (John Lurie) and his hustler buddy Eddie (Richard Edson) --
along with Willie's teenaged Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint), while they
found paradise in various settings (Ohio, and Miami, Florida). 
The
Coen Brothers' Depression Era crime comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000),
loosely based on Homer's Odyssey, told of the adventures of escaped
chain-gang convict Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) in the Deep South.
In John Dahl's teenage horror road film Joy Ride (2001), reminiscent
of Spielberg's Duel, a trio's (Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, and Steve
Zahn) cross-country road trip turned violent after a cruel CB radio prank
played on a trucker known by the 'handle' of Rusty Nail. Alfonso Cuaron's
critically-acclaimed and explicit film of sexual awakening and discovery, Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) paired two sexually-active teen boys on a
wild cross-country trip to Mexico, to a paradise beach called Boca del Cielo
(Heaven's Mouth) with seductive, 28-year-old Luisa Cortes (Maribel Verdu). 
The
last segment of W.C. Fields' 
In Paul Mazursky's Harry & Tonto (1974), Oscar-winning
Art Carney (as the septuagenarian widower title character) took his beloved
aging cat Tonto on a cross-country trip to Los Angeles. In Harold Ramis' National
Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Chevy Chase (as patriarch Clark Griswold) and
family hit the cross-country highways ultimately bound for closed-for-renovations
amusement park Wally World. Rob Reiner's coming-of-age romantic comedy The
Sure Thing (1985) followed college freshman John Cusack (as Walter "Gib"
Gibson) on a cross-country trip westward with mismatched coed Daphne Zuniga
(as Alison Bradbury), to meet a bikinied 'sure thing' -- Nicolette Sheridan.
Barry Levinson's Best Picture winning Rain Man (1988) told of self-discovery
and reconciliation during a car trip between Cincinnati and California (by
way of Las Vegas), between a self-centered, materialistic Californian Charlie
Babbitt (Tom Cruise) and his autistic-savant older brother Raymond Babbitt
(Dustin Hoffman).
John
Belushi and Dan Aykroyd found themselves chased on the road (mostly in Chicago)
and "on a mission" to go on tour to raise $5,000 to keep an orphanage
open in John Landis' The Blues Brothers (1980). In Tim Burton's first
feature film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Pee Wee (Paul Reubens)
took a cross-country trip to recover his stolen, fire engine-red customized
bicycle, including a memorable visit to San Antonio's Alamo. Star/director/writer
Albert Brooks' Lost in America (1985) demonstrated what could happen
if a suburban yuppie couple (Brooks and Julie Hagerty as David and Linda Howard)
left the rat race, sold all of their materialistic possessions and searched
for the 'real' America in a Winnebago, with life-changing visits to Las Vegas
and the Hoover Dam. Melanie Griffith as unconventional Lulu/Audrey took Jeff
Daniels (as strait-laced NY bond trader Charlie Driggs) on an unforgettable
road-trip to their HS reunion in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1984).
